Shift taxes from labour to environment, EEA tells ministers

Hans Bruyninckx, the director of the European Environment Agency, has urged ministers to carry out fiscal reforms, such as moving tax from labour to activities that damage the environment.

The EEA issued environment and employment ministers this week with a report arguing that "greener" fiscal reforms can boost employment, while protecting the environment.

Shifting tax away from labour, for example, makes it more attractive for employers to hire new people, boosting economic growth, the EU body says.

The ministers met in Milan, under the EU's Italian presidency, to discuss climate change and green growth.

"Well-designed environmental taxes can reduce pollution and increase resource efficiency in a very cost-effective way, and at the same time promote employment, economic growth and social fairness," Bruyninckx said in an email, adding that environmental taxes were "still an under-used tool''.

Environmental taxes currently account for 2.4% of EU GDP.

The report also contains other recommendations for boosting the economy through greening, such as facilitating the development of more environmentally-friendly products and services, so-called 'eco-innovation'. The report says that there is a correlation between the adoption of eco-innovation amongst firms and the resource efficiency of the countries in which they operate.

Employment strategies that protect the environment

The EEA says that the economic crisis stalled progress on protecting the environment, despite attempts to integrate environmental objectives into fiscal recovery strategies.

Ministers have been wary of imposing too much "green tape" on companies, fearful that it could slow the economic recovery.

However, many Europeans continue to find themselves unemployed, particularly the young. Youth unemployment is estimated at between 20 and 30% across the European Union.

Guy Ryder, the director-general of the International Labour Organization, also addressed EU ministers in Milan, making the case for employment strategies that protect the environment, such as greener investment. "The world does not have to choose between job creation and preserving the environment," he said in a statement.

The informal ministerial comes after the European Commission published proposals earlier this month aimed at pushing the EU towards a 'circular economy', with higher recycling targets and a phase-out of landfill.

The Commission released a series of measures aimed at boosting more environmentally friendly employment, such as in water, waste and renewable energy.

Background

The EU and international organisations, such as the UN, have sought ways to combine job creation, as nearly 10 million jobs were lost in the economic crisis, which began in 2008, and left many young people out of work.

The EU also faces an ecological crisis, with per capita emissions currently at three times the admissible level, if the world is to stay below its target of not exceeding 2°C warming by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial levels, according to the UN. The EU is also depleting resources at a faster rate than the environment's capacity to regenerate.

Officials have therefore sought to combine solutions to the economic and ecological crisis.

Governments need to study the connections between health and environmental concerns, which could save them money and improve societal well-being over the longer term, according to the European Environment Agency.

The soaps industry on Friday (7 June) launched a campaign to get Europeans to use a 30ºC washing cycle, saying just a 3º heat drop in a few countries would save enough energy to power the Italian city of Parma for a year.

Extreme weather events, including floods and storms, have driven growing numbers of Europeans from their homes. EU governments urgently need to take the lead in tackling the global threat of climate change, write Bernadette Ségol and Wendel Trio.

Governments must rally to make sure the EU's next long-term budget is geared towards curbing climate change, said an envoy from the World Bank and European lawmakers, warning that the globe was on track for a 4°C temperature rise.

EU demand for Brazilian beef and soy is contributing to deforestation of the Amazon and rising CO 2 emissions, says a report by the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research published on Thursday (4 April).

EXCLUSIVE: The EU is failing to create a circular economy that boosts resource efficiency and protects the environment, an influential report has found, piling pressure on the European Commission to deliver a strong replacement for the package of waste, incineration, landfill and recycling laws it controversially axed as part of its drive for "better regulation".

Comments

There is a very simple way to address this: carbon taxes on products - the more carbon emitted to produce the product the more tax that needs to be paid. Could make it neutral by reducing by the same amount the quantity of taxes taken from people that work. Of course one would then need to implement border carbon taxes - which are allowed by the WTO. So what is not to like - unless you are a neo-con ideologue (said comment covering most of the Tory-Vermin party in the UK).